{"id":323027,"date":"2025-10-22T05:24:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323027\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T05:24:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:24:18","slug":"plan-to-tackle-late-payments-will-be-a-disaster-for-booksellers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323027\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan to tackle late payments \u2018will be a disaster for booksellers\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government\u2019s plan to mandate 60-day payment terms between private businesses is facing a backlash because it has unintended consequences. <\/p>\n

Ministers want to close a loophole in legislation dating from 1998 that allows big firms to extend their payment terms beyond 60 days, effectively using their small suppliers to bankroll their activities. A consultation closes on Thursday.<\/p>\n

However, the proposal has met with unexpected opposition from some industries in which long payment terms benefit smaller companies. One is the book-selling trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think these proposals are probably about as popular with booksellers as a Keir Starmer autobiography would be,\u201d said Tom Rowley, managing director at Backstory, an independent bookshop in south London. <\/p>\n

Trade bodies such as the Federation of Small Businesses support a crackdown on long payment terms. They see the present requirement for big companies to avoid long payment terms only where they are \u201cgrossly unfair\u201d as largely ineffectual.<\/p>\n

Paul Wilson, policy director of the FSB, said: \u201cThat\u2019s a very hard to prove test and it basically means if a big business wants to have a longer payment term than 60 days they can at the moment. That\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed legislation also tackles late payments, and proposes changes such as audit committee and board-level scrutiny of large company payment practices, financial penalties for persistently late payments and mandatory interest on late payments.<\/p>\n

\"Bookshelves<\/p>\n

There are fears about the effect of new payment terms on independent bookshops<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

A record number of UK companies paid over half their invoices late<\/a> in the first half of the year, with average payment times exceeding 50 days. According to analysis taken from companies that submitted information as part of the UK\u2019s Payment Practices and Performance Regulations, 127 companies take more than 80 days to pay, an increase from 85 earlier this year. <\/p>\n

Publishers sell to booksellers on the understanding that after a few months, if the books are not sold, they can be returned to the publisher for credit on the bookseller\u2019s account. <\/p>\n

Rowley said changing these terms could disrupt the whole industry, meaning booksellers would be less likely to take risks on new authors.<\/p>\n

Rowley at Backstory added: \u201cExtended credit terms, which we have negotiated with most publishers, allow both publishers and booksellers to take risks.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe would absolutely always be able to order with confidence the new Richard Osman book, or the new Jamie Oliver cookbook, because we\u2019d be certain that those would sell, but this would be very bad news for a debut author.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Join The Sunday Times Get Britain Reading campaign<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The Booksellers Association said it \u201cempathises with the government\u2019s intentions\u201d, but \u201ca one-size-fits-all cap on payment terms risks serious unintended harm to a sector that already operates on thin margins and seasonal sales patterns\u201d. <\/p>\n

Meryl Halls, its managing director, said: \u201cAt worst, these rules could trigger mass closures of independent bookshops, the type of business the legislation is intended to protect; at best, they would significantly disrupt the UK\u2019s world-leading book trade ecosystem and undermine its vast potential for growth. We therefore urge the government to continue to work constructively with the trade before proceeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson at the FSB said the government\u2019s proposed terms would work for the majority of businesses that deal with longer payment terms and suffer from late payments. <\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the harm that late payment is doing, at the time it\u2019s taking away from running a business, the mental stress it adds, not knowing if you\u2019re going to be paid money that you should be owed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government\u2019s plan to mandate 60-day payment terms between private businesses is facing a backlash because it has…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":323028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-323027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115416155339617011","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}